LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri said on Monday that four years ago, the National Action Plan (NAP) was approved after a national consensus to root out terrorism and extremism, but unfortunately, its objectives could not be achieved.

In a statement, Dr Qadri said that to promote tolerance and purge Pakistan of bigotry and hate, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government must ensure implementation of the NAP in letter and spirit and parliament must turn this plan into an Act.

The points in the NAP related to the army had been implemented, but those related to the civil government were yet to be implemented. Ultimately, there was a dramatic fall in terrorist activities, he added.

He further said that the points of the NAP regarding reforms in criminal administration of justice, return of Afghan refugees, terror financing, consolidated actions against terrorism with active assistance of provincial governments, curbing publication of sectarian literature, hate speech even through social media were all liabilities of the civil government and concrete steps in this regard were yet to be taken despite passage of over four years.

Dr Qadri said in the statement that revival of Islam and a bright future of the Muslim world depended on education, peace, tolerance, moderation and economy.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2018